The Love of Loss
by Freyed
Summary: When a shadow meets a Trollhunter's son. Moments in time leading up to Nomura and Draal's reckless love going up in flames.
1. Chapter 1: The Shadow

Draal sharpened the blade in his hand. The metal scraped across the whetstone in time with the clash of his father's own training blade in the other room. He sighed. Another one finished, sharpened to a razor thin point, and only one more to go. As Draal reached for it a shadow scurried past. It barreled into a wall of shields and crashed to the floor amidst the clatter. He bolted off of his stool.

A purple troll sprawled in the shadow's place. Blood stained the floor beside her, and she clutched her knee with both hands, peering up at him with piercing green eyes. Like emeralds. He stood over her, axe in hand, but she didn't draw away. Instead she met his gaze with calm eyes and a sneer.

"What is your business here?" Draal demanded. He held his axe aloft towards her for a total of ten seconds, then his small arms gave out and it joined the shields on the floor.

His unwelcome visitor snorted. "Am I supposed to be scared?"

He grit his teeth.

"Look, I'll see myself out," she said. The strange troll pushed herself up onto her hands and knees, a grimace on her face. She stumbled when her knee gave out on her.

The sound of his father training ceased and Draal's eyes widened. He rushed over to her and dragged her to her feet, tossing an arm over his shoulders. She cried out when she tried to put weight on that knee. Draal helped her limp over to a chest and threw the lid open.

"Not on your life, Mud Breath," she snapped. The girl struggled to escape his grip.

He shoved her into the box of training uniforms. With a glance towards the door he pleaded to her creased eyebrows and worry etched across his face. "Quiet. Please."

As soon as he shut the lid, his father stepped through the doorway. Kanjigar brightened at the sight of his son.

"Ah, have you already finished tending to the armoury?"

Draal picked up his discarded battle axe. "All but this blade is tended to, Father."

A nod. Kanjigar propped his practice sword up on a rack and then he summoned his amulet. With a few words it became armor and his father was yet again replaced by the Trollhunter. Draal hid his face behind the axe in his hands. The Trollhunter stepped past his son, letting a hand drop to his head, and Draal glanced up, begging his eyes not to betray him.

"I'm afraid I will not be home for a few days." And with that he left.

Alone. Draal swiped his face with one hand and set down his work with the other. He slipped off of the stool and over to the chest that he left the intruder in, but when he opened it she was gone. Vanished. For the better, he decided. There wasn't any room for a shadow in his life, in Trollmarket.

He didn't need anyone else's pity.


	2. Chapter 2: A Stranger in a Strange Land

He donned his best leather armor and strapped a blunt axe to his back. Draal ran his hands over his horns and stared at the reflection in the mirror. The troll in the mirror was far more ready for this than he was. How was one to find a shadow? The young troll wondered, left alone to his thoughts by an empty dwelling. None of the noise drifting up from the streets of Trollmarket gave him a reprieve from his own thoughts. Was he so lonely that he would be willing to chase down an intruder to speak with someone his own age? Draal stood up straighter, and then he shouldered a satchel that may or may not have been his mother's. He stood in front of the door and took a deep breath, not out of fear of course, but instead to get rid of that tight, breathless feeling in his chest. Then as he opened it a familiar six-eyed face peered around the corner.

"Ah, Draal, my boy, I do hope you weren't waiting too long for us," Blinkous said as he invited himself inside.

Aaarrghhhhh followed close on Blinky's heels. Draal watched him with narrowed eyes, but the elder Gumm-Gumm ignored him in favor of dropping a cloth bundle on the table. It was full of the food that humans tossed out, despite it all being the best parts.

"For you."

His father left two days beforehand and had been somewhere under Canada since. In the bustling underground haven of Trollmarket life went on. Blinkous stopped by as often as possible. It never helped much because of the hulking troll that followed him everywhere he went. A reformed pacifist he may be, Draal refused to trust him. Too much risk. Aaarrghhhhh settled down somewhere in the back of his burrow. Blinky broke into a warm smile, and Draal proceeded to gag.

"I brought your favorite books, young Draal. And a few new ones for your growing mind-" He paused. "You look positively terrible, is there something wrong?"

A nod. "You can leave. I have plans, Blinkous."

This caught him off guard. Blinky sputtered for several moments before he finally found his voice again, both sets of arms crossed over his chest.

"I think not."

"You can't-"

Blinky cut him off. "Your father is my dearest friend, and he has put you in my care while he's away. Aaarrghhhhh brought you dinner, I suggest you eat it."

Draal dropped his axe and his bag to the floor and dragged them after him, making his way back to his room, separated from the main space by a heavy curtain. He could hear quiet conversation, which was Blinky speaking and the occasional answer from Aaarrghhhhh. For several moments Draal thought that all he needed was sleep. He'd stayed up all night the night before, worried for his father. For the shadow he'd never seen in Trollmarket before.

Sound drifted through the open window. He peered down to the canopy below him. A full grown troll would crush it with their weight, but, a youngling such as himself…

He tossed the axe and bag down first. Then he waited, tense, for any reaction from the other room. Nothing. A grin, and then the young troll grabbed the window sill and threw himself out into the bustling streets.

A dark armory greeted him. Draal brushed up against his usual perch, a comfortable rock that jutted out of the ground. The dim light filtering in from outside offered no help against the dark armory. He set down his bag and made his way out into the empty arena. His footsteps echoed, the sound so much louder in the unnatural silence. He closed his eyes and waited.

And waited.

And-there. Draal's eyes snapped open at the scuff of a single hoof somewhere to his left, but when he whirled around no one was there. He held the axe up in front of him, one his father had gifted him. Before the amulet. Before the passing of his mother.

When Kanjigar still smiled.

"I wish to speak to you. But if you attack, I won't hesitate," he said.

He tried to speak with the calm and regal voice his father always used. Two green eyes appeared from the gloom, and then troll from two days earlier limped out. A few strips of cloth

wrapped around her knee.

"Here to shove me in a box, Mudbreath?" She eyed the weapon in his hand.

The oversized khopesh in her hands glowed orange despite the dim light filtering in from the street. For a few tense moments they stayed there. Neither of the young trolls spoke, nor did they move to put away their weapons.

Draal nodded. "I see."

Every fiber of him screamed at him not to drop the axe. A clatter. His shadow flinched back, but then she cracked an eye open and stared at him. She sneered at him.

"You're stupider than you look."

He settled down on the ground. "That may be so."

With a snort she stepped forward and dropped her khopesh down on top of his axe, and then she eased herself down onto the ground. She stuck her injured leg out straight in front of her. Draal glanced away. Silence settled over them, a heavy blanket.

"So," she trailed off.

"To be honest, I didn't think you'd agree." Draal tugged on one of his spines. "Your khopesh. It's a fine blade."

A grin. Her shoulders dropped several centimeters, and she reached out to touch her prized blade. "They were a gift."

"They?"

"Too heavy to carry both. For now, at least." Her head shot up. "I should go."

Of course. The sound of Aaarrghhhhh's heavy footsteps. They both rose, Draal offering a hand to help his shadow to her feet. Then, he opened the bag he brought and fished out a cloth tied around a small amount of food and bandages. She hesitated. He pushed them into her hands. With a bow of her head, she moved to leave, but before she made it very far she stopped and turned to Draal.

"Tomorrow night?"

His eyes widened. But, as soon as they did, he schooled his face again and nodded. "Of course. But, your name?"

"Shadow."

She turned and limped back into the shadows. Not a moment too soon. Blinky and Aaarrghhhhh burst through the door, the former barging in and racing to Draal's side.

"By Deya's grace, Draal."

Not even a glance. The boy was too busy staring off into the darkened arena, his shoulders slumped. Blinky's expression softened. Aaarrghhhhh put a hand on his shoulder and they shared a look.

"Perhaps it would be best if you spent the night in the Library, with Aaarrghhhhh and I. Your father will be arriving back in Trollmarket tomorrow."

Draal didn't respond. Instead he nodded and walked past Blinky without a word. The older troll frowned. Despite the facade, Draal smiled to himself, because at last he had Shadow to look forward to.


End file.
